I regularly see people talking about how we don’t have enough electricity to charge electric cars. This discussion then goes on to needing more {coal, nuclear, gas}pick one or more to get the needed energy. The problem isn’t really what energy we can produce but when we can produce it vs. when we need it.
Think about your home. Assuming you are at work during the day, your bit energy usage will be in the early morning and early evening. Peak solar energy will be available while you are not home. This is the problem. The solution is, of course, a way to store that daytime solar so you can use it when you need it.
For electricity, chemical batteries are a realistic storage medium. Tesla’s sales of their grid-sized MegaPacks shows how this works. But, what about thermal energy storage?
Vantaan energy has an interesting solution. They are building a 90 gigawatt storage system in Finland. It’s a serious effort to “smooth out” supply and demand.
